Thermal Management Implications For Heterogeneous Integrated Packaging


As the semiconductor industry reaches lower process nodes, silicon designers struggle to have Moore's Law produce the results achieved in earlier generations. Increasing the die size in a monolithic system on chip (SoC) designs is no longer economically viable. The breakdown of monolithic SoCs into specialized chips, referred to as chiplets, presents significant benefits in terms of cost, yield... » read more

The Right Project Is Key For Photomask Adoption Of Deep Learning


Deep learning (DL) has become an integral part of the success of many companies. There have been many papers and some reported successes in semiconductor manufacturing, yet only 22% of the luminaries participating in the 2021 eBeam Initiative Luminaries survey see DL as a competitive advantage for photomask making by next year, as shown in figure 1. Looking at that chart, the luminaries believe... » read more

3D-IC: Great Opportunities, Great Challenges


The growing adoption of 2.5D and 3D integrated circuits (3D-ICs) marks a major inflection point in the world of semiconductor design. Electronic designers demand greater integration densities and faster data transfer rates to meet the growing performance requirements of AI/ML, 5G/6G networks and autonomous vehicles as these technologies have outpaced the capabilities of any single chip. 3D-IC t... » read more

Precision Selective Etch Tools Pave The Way For The Next Technology Inflection


Over the past decade, the need for increasingly smaller, denser, more powerful chips has been driving semiconductor manufacturers to move away from planar structures in favor of increasingly complex three-dimensional (3D) structures. Why? Simply put, stacking elements vertically enables greater density. Use of 3D architectures to support advanced logic and memory applications represents the ... » read more

Mixed Outlook For Silicon Wafers


Silicon wafers are a fundamental part of the semiconductor business. Every chipmaker needs to buy them in one size or another, such as 200mm, 300mm and others. Silicon wafer vendors produce and sell bare or raw silicon wafers to chipmakers, who in turn process them into chips. So what’s in store for the silicon wafer market? Sungho Yoon, senior research manager at SEMI, sat down with Se... » read more

Thin Quad Die Package (QDP) Development


In the world of solid-state memory fabs, bits per mm2 rule. In the memory packaging market, mm2 of silicon per a given package thickness is the defining feature. Both the memory architecture of the wafer and the package technology take advantage of 3D structures to achieve best in class bit density. In the case of the wafer fab, 3D NAND and other technologies are pushing the envelope to meet ev... » read more

The Effect Of Pattern Loading On BEOL Yield And Reliability During Chemical Mechanical Planarization


Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is required during semiconductor processing of many memory and logic devices. CMP is used to create planar surfaces and achieve uniform layer thickness during semiconductor manufacturing, and to optimize the device topology prior to the next processing step. Unfortunately, the surface of a semiconductor device is not uniform after CMP, due to different re... » read more

Luminaries See Growth Opportunities For Photomask Writers


Multi-beam mask writers (MBMWs) are the new kid on the block of the photomask writers, so growth predictions aren’t surprising. In fact, 90% of the industry luminaries surveyed by the eBeam Initiative think that new MBMW purchases will increase over the next three years, as shown in figure 1. Looking at that chart, industry luminaries predict sales of new photomask writers to increase across ... » read more

The Evolution Of Plasma Process Power


The year 1981 was notable for a variety of technology breakthroughs. It saw the inaugural mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the debut of the DeLorean car. The IBM PC, Commodore 64, and the ZX81 were among the personal computers to hit store shelves. It also marked the year, four decades ago, that Advanced Energy was founded and took its first steps towards a mission to enable custom... » read more

Semiconductor Industry Faces Stiff Competition For Talent


For decades, the semiconductor industry has been defined by our ability to innovate. Each time we’ve been faced with seemingly insurmountable technological challenges, we have invented innovative approaches and methods to solve them, and in doing so, we’ve helped to transform how the world works, plays, learns, and connects. Today, we are again faced with a critical new challenge: the gl... » read more

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